Oops forgot to mention, in planning on replacing my laptop with a more powerful desktop. Yes, with my laptop I just take my laptop into the booth, but of course I can't do that with a desktop.

So does everyone agree that interface > powered USB hub > USB extension > computer will probably work?

IT may work. You'll have to try. But if you want to be fool proof - or fail safe as they say - go with longer mic cables and a headphone amp. I tried to connect some stuff on a stage once, requiring a looooong USB cable. It was fine for simple things like mouse and keyboard, usb memory stick etc. but we needed it connected to an interface. It worked but didn't quite get the juice it needed so we tried a hub. It was ok when a second hub was connected on the other end as well. But not reliable. It was a bad experience to be honest.

so in my own experience. I'd say no. But you may get lucky. This is a long time ago and different gear.

Yeah, it might work but it's another link in the chain that can screw up. Hubs and long cables are not recommended for interfaces. BTW... how do you intend to control the DAW while you are in the closet? Or is this a two person operation?

Beepster


Yeah, it might work but it's another link in the chain that can screw up. Hubs and long cables are not recommended for interfaces. BTW... how do you intend to control the DAW while you are in the closet? Or is this a two person operation?

I have an old dell flat screen monitor that came with my desktop several years back, so super long vga cable + wireless keyboard + wireless mouse ;)


This only works because I conveniently have an outlet inside my closet

Do you happen to have an extra computer around? Even if it doesn't have a lot of horsepower you could install just the essentials of Sonar then export the tracks you need to a simple stereo wave, import it to the closet DAW and record your vocals. Doing it that way will use very little resources and you could get away with something far less than the minimum specs (in theory but others here have assured me even my crummy laptop could handle Sonar). You don't have to use Sonar to do this if you have a REALLY cruddy computer. Just get a resource light DAW like maybe Reaper and just get the tracks that way. It doesn't matter just as long as you get the performance down. I'm gonna probably be doing something similar soon.

If you do however go for the hub option get a really good one that doesn't fall asleep and keeps a good solid connection and make sure it's the proper USB version (IE: don't use a 3.0 or a 1.0 hub to run a 2.0 interface). 

Cheers.

But really... some really long XLR cables would probably be better.

Beepster


But really... some really long XLR cables would probably be better.

Well the whole point of my setup was so that I can record everything directly onto my main desktop DAW instead of transferring recordings from one computer to another. This way, I can just hop into my closet and record any time I want to with minimal setup time I really wish the USB option would work, so that I can adjust my mic gain and headphone levels on my interface from inside my closet.


For my hub, I have a simple Belkin 4-port USB hub (the white one) that I bought at target.

Well test it out. The worst that can happen is you'll get some dropouts. Good luck.

What we really need is some kind of "virtual" R-Mix device that creates a cone of silence for everything "outside" the perimeters and emphasis for everything "inside" the perimeter...that way it would not matter what the noise level or interference was as long as you were inside the magical device you would have a clean recording...

We're probably a few years away from that though...so pillows, blankets, closets, sound deadening materials abound....

The best and correct way to do this is to extend the audio not the USB interface. Leave that short and connected close to the computer.

I have seen  a few situations and what seems to work well was to have some sort of small footprint mixer in the booth. The VO microphone is connected via balanced XLR to the preamp it is feeding. (ie your interface) Long XLR cables pose no problems. 

The output from the interface and a zero latency split from the mic can be fed back into the small mixer in the booth giving the VO person lots of control over their own level and the playback level from the DAW. Software monitoring is not required from the DAW as it is taken care of via the split from the mic feeding back into the VO booth mixer. Behringer make a perfect mixer for the booth for very low cost.